In the Gulf War, oil wells were opened and set on fire. Large areas of surrounding sand were covered with unburned crude oil. Salt water was used to assist in extinguishing the fires—it too covered large areas of the surrounding sand. Some of the oil and salt water penetrated downwardly into the porous, permeable, unconsolidated sand to a shallow depth (for example, to a depth of 10 feet). Much of the water evaporated, but the salt remained.
While the oil was initially of low viscosity, its light ends have evaporated over time and the remaining viscous residue is now immobile.
As a consequence, shallow surface layers of sand have been left, contaminated with oil and salt. These layers cover large areas of territory. The land involved has since been barren and useless. Vegetation has difficulty growing on it and the salt is toxic for animals.
The present system has been developed to remediate these contaminated surface layers of sand in such areas (e.g., Kuwait) by recovering the oil and removing the salt. However, it is contemplated that the technique involved may be applied in other circumstances where a porous, permeable surface layer of soil has been contaminated with hydrocarbons, chemicals and the like.